{"id":355574,"date":"2026-01-26T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T23:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=355574"},"modified":"2026-01-26T09:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T23:40:43","slug":"abc-satire-on-smallpox-claim-sparks-australia-day-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=355574","title":{"rendered":"ABC Satire on Smallpox Claim Sparks Australia Day Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The satirical show &#8216;Always Was Tonight,&#8217; hosted by Indigenous presenter and former AFL player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?tag=tony-armstrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Tony Armstrong\">Tony Armstrong<\/a>, aired on ABC TV on January 21, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A sketch referenced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=355575\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">a contested 1789 theory that British settlers deliberately spread smallpox to Aboriginal people<\/a> near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?tag=sydney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Sydney\">Sydney<\/a>, killing about half the local population\u2014though mainstream historians attribute it to accidental introduction, with no primary evidence of intent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Critics like former MP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?tag=craig-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Craig Kelly\">Craig Kelly<\/a> called it a &#8216;long-debunked myth&#8217; meant to inflame resentment, intensifying calls to defund the taxpayer-funded ABC, while defenders praised its bold take on Indigenous perspectives amid ongoing Australia Day tensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A &#8216;long-debunked myth&#8217; meant to inflame resentment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":355582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,35],"tags":[997,14576,19370,19367],"class_list":["post-355574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","tag-australia-day","tag-craig-kelly","tag-small-pox","tag-tony-armstrong"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355583,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355574\/revisions\/355583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/355582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}